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★★★½☆
27 June 2019
A movie review of CRYSTAL SWAN. |
“Where have you seen the law here?” Velya (Alina Nasibullina)
That was a heavy watch. Minsk, 1996, a young woman is desperate for an American visa. CRYSTAL SWAN is a disheartening portrait of a society where nobody matters but you. Russia and the nations of the Russian Federation certainly know how to make ultra-depressing social realist cinema. Check out CARGO 200 (2007) and MY JOY (2010). They are bold and hardcore, with piercing social commentary. Make sure to plan something fun afterwards.
That was a heavy watch. Minsk, 1996, a young woman is desperate for an American visa. CRYSTAL SWAN is a disheartening portrait of a society where nobody matters but you. Russia and the nations of the Russian Federation certainly know how to make ultra-depressing social realist cinema. Check out CARGO 200 (2007) and MY JOY (2010). They are bold and hardcore, with piercing social commentary. Make sure to plan something fun afterwards.
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Velya still uses a Walkman in the mid-1990s. Forget Discmans, mini-discs are just round the corner. It is a technological indicator of Belarus’s economy. Velya is a house music DJ dreaming of living and working in Chicago, the home of the genre. Anyone familiar with United States’ wealth disparity, healthcare system, social safety nets, justice system, etc. will see the fallacy of the American dream. There can only be such a dream with equity of opportunity, human rights, employment rights, etc. How many countries have that?
Opportunities for gainful employment are limited in Belarus. And it seems all 20-somethings, without connections, are forced to shred their consciences. Survival of the scammers and charlatans. To get an American visa, a country seen as a utopia for foreigners, ironic in the era of Donald Trump, you have to earn enough not to need one. With hindsight, Vladimir Putin’s ascendance in the region is on the horizon. Velya is on a mission at any cost, burning bridges left and right. (Her bolshy ability to talk reminds a little of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002).)
The generational divide is portrayed as seismic: Impetuous young people and bitter old people. Everyone is unhappy and ungrateful. Can't argue with the latter. When there's poverty and no rule of law, hope is an early casualty. Velya yearns for a freedom to say what you want, wear what you want, and think what you want. Boyfriend Alik (Yuriy Borisov) seems to live in the type of container you see at major shipping ports. At a wedding, devoid of modern budgets, an inflatable swan is strapped to the marital car. Are we meant to laugh at this? Laughing at those struggling financially is not right.
The three 20-something characters are shown to be worryingly impulsive. Is it because of unworldliness, myopia, foolishness, or the fear life will be taken away from them (via interment or premature death)? There is no thinking a few steps ahead, analysing consequences. Velya must make here way to a town she has never been, to find the residence of the phone number she gave in her United States application, which was filled with falsehoods.
Velya just has cash for a one-way bus ride. She has no fall back money. She knows nobody there, no family there, nor friends of friends. Dread hangs over proceedings. Worry for Velya's well being. Like Bruno Dumont's TWENTYNINE PALMS (2003), the threat of (sexual) violence is disturbingly palpable.
CRYSTAL SWAN portrays a society shorn of compassion.
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